Numeracy Tasks: Inspiring Transfer Between Concrete and Abstract Thinking Spaces

Abstract

In our paper we build a case for conceptualizing numeracy tasks as distinct from mathematical tasks (or at least as a special type of mathematical task), and for abstraction and interpretation as a set of key activities necessary for designating a numeracy task as being high-quality. We start with an attempt to tame the fuzziness of numeracy and its family members (including quantitative reasoning, quantitative literacy, mathematical literacy, and the word problem cousins) by outlining six areas of consensus gleaned from literature. These provide the foundation for a core mandate of numeracy. We then build our case for the distinctness of mathematical and numeracy tasks by focusing our attention on what they are about. Finally, we describe a numeracy thinking process with abstraction and interpretation as key elements that can serve as a foundation for describing characteristics of high-quality numeracy tasks. We use numeracy here as an umbrella term for the wider set of family members even though there is no consensus as to its primacy.